Hayrikian Shot, Taken to Hospital [Updated]

Presidential candidate Paruyr Hairikian

Will the presidential elections be postponed?

YEREVAN—Armenian presidential candidate and leader of the Armenian Self-Determination Movement Paruyr Hayrikian was shot on Tpagrichneri Avenue, shortly before midnight Friday. This assassination attempt could postpone the February 18 presidential elections.

Hayrikian was transported to the St. Gregory the Illuminator Hospital, where officials told Hetq.am that that at 11:55 p.m. Hayrikian was admitted with a gun shot wounds to his right clavicle and after undergoing surgery was recuperating in the intensive care unit.

Could the presidential elections be postponed?
The Hayrikian incident could force the presidential elections to be postponed. According to Article 98 of the Armenian Presidential Election Code, if a candidate is faced with insurmountable obstacles, the elections must be postponed by two weeks, reported Yerkir.am.

Chairman of the Armenian Parliament and President Serzh Sarkisian’s re-election campaign manager Hovik Abrahamian, who was in the hospital with other high-ranking officials, did not rule out the postponement of the elections depending on the developments of the case.

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A barbaric and shamefull act the culprit should be brought to justice where is the body guards of our presidential candidates is it free for all or only the president has an apropriate ptotection shame shame

I would be very careful about how to handle this situation if I was say part of the Armenian media. This could very well be an attempt to destabilize the country during elections in wake of an Azeri offensive into Armenia. … the players? Everyone…you don’t necessarily have to be holding a gun at the crime scene to be a the “suspect”. We are living in dangerous yet interesting times.

Very good what you just said people should not jump and start pointing fingers at our own Government yes indeed it is a out side work by one of our enemys and people should realize and see the big picture , every time were the situation gets better in Armenian all of the sudden some one tries to destabilize our our country and yes i beleive strongly it is an out side source that is involved with the current situation.

I do not believe what happened to Paruyr Hayrikian today was a random shooting, nor do I believe it was a mafia related incident. This was clearly an assassination attempt. But by who?

Paruyr Hayrikian is a well known Soviet era dissident with very close contacts in Washington. Hayrikian is also well known for his anti-Russian extremism. Although Hayrikian is tolerated and somewhat respected in Armenian society, when it comes to serious political matters, a majority of Armenians dislike him and/or don’t trust him. Therefore, Hayrikian would have never gotten anything past the single digits in any elections in Armenia as recent polling data have revealed. Therefore, Hayrikian did not pose any threat to the incumbent president or to the Armenian state or to the Russian Federation.

If the shooting was indeed carried-out by Armenian or Russian state interests, then it was meant to be a drastic message to the West to keep their men out of the political process in Armenia. The geopolitical situation in the region is extremely tense and Russians are not taking any chances. But why would Russians do this now, when the presidential election is near and their man in Yerevan is assured to win?

A more plausible theory in my opinion is that Western interests may have been behind the shooting.

In other words, they shot one of their own (one who didn’t have a promising political career in Armenia anyway) to put pressure on Armenian authorities ahead of the presidential elections or to incite social unrest. This may also have been done to smear Armenia’s name and to forever taint the up-coming elections similar to what they did back in 2008. Watch now how Armenia’s political opposition will go hysterical over this incident and how much bad coverage the up-coming elections will have.

Just when President Sargsyan thought he had tamed the political field in Armenia to his advantage, we now have something that is potentially very explosive in Yerevan. Until today, the election campaign was unusually going all too well for President Sargsyan.

I reiterate: Although Hayrikian had been under Russian surveillance for decades due to his on-going collaboration with Washington and Moscow had/has ample reasons to eliminate him, I do not think they were behind the shooting today. Moreover, why would the incumbent president in Armenia want to do this now and risk serious unrest just ahead of the presidential elections – especially when Paruyr Hayrikian posed absolutely no competition to him?

We keep praising ourselves as one of the first civilizations in the world and the first nation to accept Christianity as our state religion. We pride ourselves on our intelligence and human capital. Then some scums come along and do this or the Parliament shootings in 1997. Shame on the people who organized this and shame on the guys who did it. I won’t be surprised to learn that it is Serzh Sarkisian and his surroundings in order to intimidate the voters and the other candidates. His football diplomacy at work.

This was most probably an assassination ordered by Western interests. They basically shot one of their own in an attempt to incite unrest in the country ahead of the coming presidential election. The electoral process was proceeding too quietly, too peacefully and the incumbent president was assured to win. Ask yourselves, who gains from unrest in Armenia? The answer is – the Anglo-American-Zionist alliance and their regional Turkic and Islamic friends…

It is a shame… This is not the free Armenia we had been dreaming about, this is not the Armenia our parents talked to us about, or we talked to our kids about. SHAME… I pray that this shouting is fully investigated for the good of our homeland.

I think we should keep cool. This is no time for social and political unrest in the country. We don’t know who is behind this so better be patient a bit until the facts are known. Maybe the “assassin” wasn’t even Armenian so let’s not jump the gun. These things happen when certain elements want to cause mayhem, so better not give way to emotions and no one has died as a result.Assassins don’t usually miss their targets so better wait and see if they get the man!

Some “none” Armenian political forces willing to see another March 2008 incidents and create a fake revolution in Armenia!!I am sure most Armenians are smart enough to stay calm and deal with election and not to get trapped with foreign political intention to destabilize Armenia!!